Picked to Click 2018 No. 3: The Bad Man

The Minneapolis group formed when guitarist Patrick Davis returned from a European vacation and made a home in the living room closet of vocalist Peter Memorich. They wrote their first song together, “Staring at Your Telephone,” a short time later, and recorded their debut full-length, Aint Clean, in March 2017.

The Bad Man has kept that momentum going with a new album, Laughing With Bad Teeth, which will be released on October 27 with a show at the Entry. The band’s prolific output is driven in part by an urgency born of time constraints.

“We get two days to write a week,” says Memorich. “Pat will come in and play whatever he wants. A lot of what we come up with comes from whatever kind of guitarist Pat wants to be that week. If Pat wants to dance, we put a circus tent on it.”

The new record was recorded at the Terrarium by Rob Oesterlin. “David Melek, Rob Oesterlin [producers], and Ryan Rusch [engineer] taught us how to do it,” Memorich says. “They are in this album just as much as we are. They were alongside while we wrote all these songs standing at the microphone, because I didn’t write them the night before.”

And if the band members are quick to credit their collaborators, they’re not shy about crediting their influences either. “That whole label of us being a ska-punk band probably comes from my heavy influence from the Clash,” says Memorich, though the Bad Man augment their punk roots with robust horn flourishes led by Ben Hintz’s saxophone. And their lyrics address modern concerns like the struggle to make a living while finding time to party on beaches, bars, and in dance clubs, as well as locals-only references like “Wally the Beer Man.”

The Bad Man’s songs are all honed live; the frenetic, high-energy sound you hear on their two albums has been worked out on stage. “It’s always been about the live show, and we’ve put that into the two albums,” says Memorich. “If you can see us live, it’s worth the cover charge.”

Given their fierce shows, it’s no surprise that the Bad Man also draw inspiration from a local band who once set stages alight. “I would go see the Goondas every time they played,” says Memorich. “I would sit and watch those guys live, and always said to myself Minneapolis needed a wild frontman like Brenden Green.

“And if he wasn’t going to do it, I was.”

Click here to check out the rest of the list, or click here to read about Dua Saleh, who ranked No. 4 in Picked to Click.